Food awareness among diarrheal children mothers

Abstract

Background: Food awareness is vital in the prevention and prevalence of diarrhea in children under the age of five. Assessment of maternal food knowledge is a public health priority for children's health. Therefore, thus study aimed to assess food awareness among diarrheal children mothers and determine the associated demographic variables in The-Qar Province/ Iraq. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 200 women who had child's with diarrhea. This sample distributed throughout two hospitals include (Bint Al-Huda Teaching Hospital and Martyr Muhammad Al-Moussawi Children's Hospital). The reliability of the questionnaire was achieved through a pilot study and then presented to experts to prove its validity. The total number of items included in the questionnaire was 20-items. The data was collected by using the semi-structured interview and analyzed by the application of descriptive and inferential statistical data analysis approach. Results: The results of the study indicated that (43%) of the mothers exhibited a moderate level of food awareness. There were significant differences in food awareness with regards mothers age, education and residents (p< 0.05). Conclusions: Mothers health awareness leads to decrease the prevalence of diarrhea.